Abstract

Recently, the use of anti-reflection structured (ARS) surfaces has been proposed to reduce unwanted reflections off optical surfaces, see for example, Refs. 1-3. As shown in Fig. 1, ARS surfaces are surface-relief gratings that are designed such that only the zeroth-order transmitted and reflected waves propogate. In order for no diffracted waves to propogate for all incident angles, θ_j, up to a maximum angle of incidence, θ_max, the wavelength to surface period ratio, λ/Λ, must be larger than unity and satisfy where Max is equal to the maximum value of its arguments. Since light does not diffract when interacting with these subwavelength surface features, the optical characteristics of the system can be completely described if the structured region is represented by a film having an effective permittivity.

© 1992 Optical Society of America